“Don’t look up”

News blues

Oh-oh. Omicron. “The US is averaging 198,404 new Covid-19 cases each day… 47% higher than a week ago and the highest such number since January 19 [with] about 71,000 Americans hospitalized [and] an average of 1,408 Americans dying - a 17% increase - from Covid-19 each day during the week ending Sunday [Boxing Day]….
"I think we're going to see half a million cases a day - sometime over the next week to 10 days…." 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Oceana  analyzed e-commerce packaging data and found that Amazon generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020. This is a 29% increase of Oceana’s 2019 estimate of 465 million pounds. The report  also found that Amazon’s estimated plastic packaging waste, in the form of air pillows alone, would circle the Earth more than 600 times. By combining the e-commerce packaging data with findings from a recent study published in Science, Oceana estimates that up to 23.5 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s waterways and oceans in 2020, the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the oceans every 67 minutes.

Read the report >> 

***

© Photograph by Jason Edwards /
National Geographic

Edward O Wilson, naturalist known as a ‘modern-day Darwin’, dies aged 92. 
If you have not yet read E. O. Wilson, start with “Trailhead”, in the New Yorker 

***

Can't help but notice my mom died in the same year as many elevated and creative humans died ... including friend and San Francisco’s own, poet Jack Hershman.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Audience responses to Adam McKay’s 2021 movie, “Don’t look up!” range from “that’s excellent satire” (I’m in that group) to “a disaster!” 

 Along the lines of generational commentary movies, “War of the Worlds” and “Dr. Strangelove”, Netflix’s “Don’t look up!” highlights the diversity of the human mind accepting/not accepting our current human/planet condition.

If you watch it, watch and listen carefully - there’s a lot going on, including hard-to-articulate depths on how We the People distract ourselves from troublesome “reality.”

***

Obsessions, reprise
North/south solstices, December 27, 2021: 

San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 4:57pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:59am
Sunset: 7:01pm
Rain, rain, rain….

... update on battery charging obsession  

 

The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone). The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone).

 

Baking obsession continues. Yesterday, tried a recipe for dinner rolls. The rolls weren’t bad, just meh - I doubt I’ll revisit that recipe.
I did page through many recipe books and watch assorted online recipes and YouTube cooking shows.
I’d planned to troll various local thrift shops for low price/good quality cooking equipment. Alas, Omicron’s apparent ubiquity changed my mind. Moreover, in another week, Omicron allowing, there’ll be a wider choice of discarded equipment as people toss out the old and make room for the new… from Christmas gifts.